Detroit: Nissan confirms IDx sportscar for production

DATSUN SILVIA and 200SX fans rejoice, because Nissan’s car czar has confirmed that the inexpensive rear-drive sports car is finally heading back our way.

Speaking at the Detroit motor show earlier this afternoon, company executive vice president, Andy Palmer, revealed to Wheels that the IDx Concept that wowed show goers in Tokyo last November is at last production-bound.

Expect to see the retro-infused coupe within the next two years, though probably not wearing the IDx badge.

Regular readers may recall that two visually similar but mechanically divergent concepts starred on Nissan’s stand back in Japan – the Freeflow (“a casual/lifestyle-focused vision” offering engine choices ranging from 1.2-litres to 1.5 litres) and Nismo (a sportier iteration employing 1.6-litre turbo power, and described as “an ultra-sporty model of the future that looks as if it came directly from a driving simulator”).

Underlining their importance to the company, both are on hand at the American show as well.

“We’ve made a decision on one of those two,” Mr. Palmer announced. “One of those two will go into what we call our ‘midterm plan’. Now whether we do both remains to be seen. Don’t say we won’t do both, but we definitely will do one of them.”

While he would not go into anything more specific for the time being, Mr. Palmer added that Nissan is keen to return to a market it helped pioneer for four decades from the 1960s.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of the conceptually similar Kia GT4 Stinger’s surprise debut in Detroit today.

Both are aimed at the same affordable rear-drive sports coupe market revived by our Car of the Year 2012-winning Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ.

Stay tuned for more IDx news as it comes to hand.